Hudson Foods, 2 Workers Indicted In Meat Recall

OTHER NEWS TO NOTE - MIDWEST

December 18, 1998

LINCOLN, Neb. - Hudson Foods Inc. and two employees have been charged with trying to hide the extent of contamination in millions of pounds of hamburger that sickened 16 people last year. The grand-jury indictment released this week accuses the Arkansas-based company, its plant manager in Columbus, Neb., and a quality-control official with conspiracy to provide false information to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Hamburger produced at the company's Columbus plant was linked to an outbreak of potentially deadly E. coli contamination in August 1997, prompting the recall of 25 million pounds of meat. It was the nation's largest meat recall and left many Burger King restaurants burgerless for days. Fifteen people fell ill in Colorado and one in Kentucky.